Curious casualties at animal house

November 18, 2002|By Bruce J. Miller. Miller is a special RedEye contributor.

The gray schnauzer sits shivering and salivating on the gleaming steel table. Dr. Richard Pehta stands a few feet away with his hand on his chin. A trim, soft-spoken man, he quickly figures out what's wrong:

"She just had puppies. It's her nutrition, a deficiency, hypocalcaemia, not enough calcium."

Although it's 1 a.m. Tuesday, the place is busy. A middle-aged man has come in with a terrier who has been hit by a car.

"I let him off [his] leash to see his dog friend, and he ran into the street. He seems OK, but there's blood in his ear."

A couple rushes in with a rat terrier, a puppy. The woman is holding something wrapped in tin foil.

The Chicago Veterinary Emergency Services Association was formed in 1978 when 22 animal hospitals in Chicago consolidated emergency services. Pehta, the general manager, has been there since the beginning.

"In the old days" he recalled, "vets answered their own phones, and if someone called you at 2 in the morning, you had to help them out. It started to become risky. The quality of care wasn't that good. The animal didn't stay the whole night. They would administer treatment, and that was about it."

Today, the association has a new building at 3123 N. Clybourn Ave. and a staff of 43, including six full-time vets and three part-timers who answer phones and give advice to emotional callers. There are wards for dogs, cats, and contagious animals, an intensive care unit, a surgery room and a laboratory.

Alice Murtas, the staff supervisor, has worked at the hospital for 11 years. She said the staff sees 30 to 50 animals on weekends, and an average of 20 nightly during the week. It's the only all-night facility in Chicago, although there are others in Buffalo Grove, Crestwood, Lisle, Northbrook, Schaumburg and Skokie. It is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and, Friday from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m., Wednesday from noon to 8 a.m. and Saturday from noon to 8 a.m.

Pehta works 11 to 12 hours on a shift.

"I wasn't really thrilled with regular practice," he said. "It was too mundane and too routine--vaccinations and stuff like that. It wasn't a challenge, really."

Murtas describes how a dog in Bridgeport fell off a balcony onto the ornate spikes of a wrought-iron fence. The dog's owner cut out part of the fence and drove his chest-impaled pet to the emergency room. Nothing vital was damaged, and the dog was fine. Another dog, a blind cocker spaniel, swallowed a 15-inch spatula, requiring surgery.

"But stuff like that happens all the time" Murtas said, "I mean strange dogs that swallow things--keys, wedding rings, condoms, socks or the entire set of bathroom towels a Rottweiler ate."

"Pets are very important to people" Pehta said.

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